How to Reduce Weight and Heating Bills at Once

I wear the same jeans in winter that I wear in summer. My heating bill for one month always shows two digits between the dollar sign and the decimal point. If you'd like both of these things to be true for you, here's the secret: Many people with disabilities can't, but most active and healthy people can, raise our metabolic rates to the point where earth temperature, 55 degrees Fahrenheit, feels comfortable.

Here's a revised version of my Associated Content Top Ten List of tips for reducing weight and energy consumption in winter:

1. Basically, the secret is lots of exercise. Just do it! The first cold mornings of winter make most of us, including me, want to lie in bed thinking "Do I haaave to get up and exercise?" Yes.

However, you need to remember that the human body has two opposite reactions to exercising in cold weather. One is to raise metabolism and burn more fat to keep warm. The other is to try to store more fat on parts of the body that feel cold, to keep them warm. So, before you go out into the frosty air to exercise, pile on the layers, especially on your arms and legs. Think tights, socks, skinny pants, fat pants, and leg warmers. As you warm up, peel off layers.

2. While you can do aerobic exercise indoors, the metabolism-boosting lifestyle involves going out in rain and snow. Our ancestors did this, but they had to burden themselves with layers of creaky, leaky leather and insect-attracting fur for insulation. You too can become comfortable walking in rain and snow, and you can take advantage of modern materials that are lighter, easier to care for, and less disgusting. Good sources of insulating winter gear include L.L. Bean, Lands End, Carhartt, and local hand weavers and knitters.

3. As a knitter, I should probably say something about which kind of handmade material to choose for your next-to-top layer. Wool or acrylic? The answer is, both. Each has its own merits and is ideal for some kinds of weather.

Wool has a unique way of helping your body stay warm. Those tickly little hairs that make wool fabric itchy in a warm room are delightfully warming in freezing weather. Wool is great for socks, mittens, hats, and scarves...they can be lightweight and still keep the parts of you that chill most easily feeling warm. Even when it's soaking wet, wool has this trick of warming your hands.

"Wool allergies" nearly always turn out to be allergies to chemicals used in processing wool, rather than wool itself. If you have tried wearing some sort of "new, super-washable" wool and had a rash that continued to prickle for hours after you took it off, you should consider experimenting with a minimally processed, undyed wool. If you don't find a local supplier at a web site like http://www.fallfiberfestival.org/ or your local equivalent, The Philosopher's Wool Company, Manos del Uruguay, Lion Brand, and Jamieson & Smith usually offer a nice selection of undyed wools.

Acrylic is basically spun plastic, but this fact makes acrylic very light for its bulk. A blanket-thick acrylic jacket or poncho is not only easy to wear (and wash, and even machine-dry), but when you walk in falling snow, the snow that piles up on your shoulders will actually form a crust that insulates you. This is the real secret of how certain Canadians are able to shake the snow off their sweaters and proclaim, "I'm burning up! Got a (product that Michael J. Fox advertises, but I don't)?" Try it--it works here too.

4. Make your workout pay by doing manual labor the oldfashioned way. Churning butter, spinning yarn, weaving or sewing with a treadle machine, cutting and hauling wood, even washing laundry with a hand-powered rather than electric-powered machine, provide workouts that also directly reduce your energy expenses (and your carbon footprint).

5. "Home gym" exercise devices tend to be a rip-off...because people don't use them. An "Exercycle" is an awfully expensive, not very decorative coat rack...or, if you know how to wire it up to a generator (or know someone who does), a neat way to stretch energy dollars even further.

6. Every house has some areas that are naturally warmer than others, typically in rooms with windows facing south or west. You will want to keep part of your house warm, or easily warmed, above 55 degrees Fahrenheit for the benefit of visitors, so identify your natural "hot spot" and work with it. Insulate those windows with heavy curtains when the sun's not shining on them, and let the sun shine in when it is. Caulk around the double panes, and place thick, heat-trapping rugs, cushions, and afghans where they can catch the sun.

7. You will probably want to continue using some electric-powered gadgets. Things like radios and computers produce heat. Bring them into your "warm room." (To protect the computer, make sure this room is heated with something that does not release ashes.)

8. Sleeping bags aren't just for camping. They'll keep you toasty even in an unheated bedroom. To get the benefit of a sleeping bag every night all winter long, line it with one or two sheets, which you can remove and launder as needed. Cotton flannel sheets are especially nice.

9. Hot food and drink warm the body; cold food and drink cool off the body. That's why oldtimers in Western movies were always telling a tenderfoot to boil snow before eating/drinking it. Too much hot tea or coffee can overburden the kidneys and make it harder for the body to stay warm. If you've had enough tea and coffee for one day, try heating water to the same temperature at which you normally drink coffee or tea. Once you get used to the idea of drinking hot water, it's not bad.

Some people in my part of the world believe that boiling our local water, which definitely causes some calcium and magnesium to precipitate out into little chunks of rock that need to be shaken out of the teakettle every few days, releases enough of these minerals into a form that the body can use to help prevent or reverse tooth decay and osteoporosis. Is this possible? Is nature that nice? Further studies are needed.

10. The body's self-heating process breaks down whenever infections, or even allergy reactions, produce a fever. Anyone who is running a temperature needs to go to the "warm room" and stay there; the more you can warm the body from outside, with blankets and hot tea and so on, the less the body needs to risk damaging itself by running a high fever.

Healthy people who use exercise to boost their metabolism can enjoy a few holiday treats without worrying about gaining weight. However, in order to digest concentrated fats and simple carbohydrates, the body uses up nutrients that the self-heating process also needs, so you still need to choose a mostly healthy, natural diet.